Franc Kaiser
Air-Valve Autobot!
Hello everybody
I am a 42 year old Swiss, living and working in China since nearly 2 decades. I have been an oil painter since I was around 18. I got increasingly frustrated with the slow process of using oil on canvas. Furthermore, I always wanted to try out AB as my fellow compatriot H.R. Giger is one of my favorite artists.
So, a couple of weeks ago, I went the cheapest route possible and bought a Chinese no-name airbrush (that comes with a 0.2, 0.3, and 0.5mm needle), and a small portable diaphragm compressor… for a total of around USD 30. I wanted to see whether AB is for me, and if does live up to its promise, but wanted to learn things from ground up, and not take the risk of wasting (or damaging) a high-end brush such a Micron or Infinity.
I spent a couple of evenings trying out the equipment – well, I spent 80% of the time disassembling, cleaning, and fixing the airbrush. I got what I paid for, obviously, but I still found the experience worthwhile. I wrongly installed the trigger. I damaged the needle. I broke off the nozzle. And so on! In terms of spray quality, the Chinese airbrush is admittedly a piece of excrement, making a consistent (non-dotted) line impossible, and often it sprayed and stained without any real control. I found it to be more of a color “thrower” than a color sprayer. The only thing that kept working was the small compressor, albeit at very low and rather pulsing pressure rates.
Anyway, the outcome of my first few evenings painting on a large cardboard sheet is attached. I tend to switch off my consciousness and simply paint what comes to mind, without sketching, and without stencils or masks. Typically, the results are organic shapes of some sort. I only use 2 colors, Golden High Flow carbon black and titanium white, plus a lot of water to thin / stretch the color.
A week ago I have upgraded slightly… I bought a Sparmax Sp-20x, which does provide much better control and consistent lines. However, due to the better airbrush, my small mini compressor is now suffering much more, pulsing with decreasing rate the longer I use it. I will need to buy a decent compressor soon to achieve stronger pressure and consistent airflow, but I like the simplicity (and also, relatively noiseless) of the thing, so I guess I will keep using it until it completely dies. So far, it worked ok for around 15 hours total, sometimes several hours in a row.
I found this forum to be really good and value-added, and hope to share my own experiences and questions with all you folks out there!
I am a 42 year old Swiss, living and working in China since nearly 2 decades. I have been an oil painter since I was around 18. I got increasingly frustrated with the slow process of using oil on canvas. Furthermore, I always wanted to try out AB as my fellow compatriot H.R. Giger is one of my favorite artists.
So, a couple of weeks ago, I went the cheapest route possible and bought a Chinese no-name airbrush (that comes with a 0.2, 0.3, and 0.5mm needle), and a small portable diaphragm compressor… for a total of around USD 30. I wanted to see whether AB is for me, and if does live up to its promise, but wanted to learn things from ground up, and not take the risk of wasting (or damaging) a high-end brush such a Micron or Infinity.
I spent a couple of evenings trying out the equipment – well, I spent 80% of the time disassembling, cleaning, and fixing the airbrush. I got what I paid for, obviously, but I still found the experience worthwhile. I wrongly installed the trigger. I damaged the needle. I broke off the nozzle. And so on! In terms of spray quality, the Chinese airbrush is admittedly a piece of excrement, making a consistent (non-dotted) line impossible, and often it sprayed and stained without any real control. I found it to be more of a color “thrower” than a color sprayer. The only thing that kept working was the small compressor, albeit at very low and rather pulsing pressure rates.
Anyway, the outcome of my first few evenings painting on a large cardboard sheet is attached. I tend to switch off my consciousness and simply paint what comes to mind, without sketching, and without stencils or masks. Typically, the results are organic shapes of some sort. I only use 2 colors, Golden High Flow carbon black and titanium white, plus a lot of water to thin / stretch the color.
A week ago I have upgraded slightly… I bought a Sparmax Sp-20x, which does provide much better control and consistent lines. However, due to the better airbrush, my small mini compressor is now suffering much more, pulsing with decreasing rate the longer I use it. I will need to buy a decent compressor soon to achieve stronger pressure and consistent airflow, but I like the simplicity (and also, relatively noiseless) of the thing, so I guess I will keep using it until it completely dies. So far, it worked ok for around 15 hours total, sometimes several hours in a row.
I found this forum to be really good and value-added, and hope to share my own experiences and questions with all you folks out there!